


Bystander

by HonieGoo



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: I'll add more characters in the tag as I go along, I'll change the archive warning when needed, Other, Reader is gender neutral, Slow Burn, The reader has two moms because I said so, home au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 12:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20742344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HonieGoo/pseuds/HonieGoo
Summary: Pretty much a Home / The True Meaning of Smekday AU but with our favorite alien race.





	Bystander

**Author's Note:**

> Quick shout out to Tatsumama (creator for Of Romance and World Domination) and TheCookieNerd (creator of Lab Partners) for proofreading this for me! Please give their own works a read, both do such a lovely job!

There’s a ton of theories on how Earth was to end; some random date, even when ancient people got bored of counting, zombie apocalypse, robots becoming sentient, we humans would potentially suck the life out of this beautiful world until it’s basically a raisin- you name it, we probably predicted such already. Maybe another meteor will crash and reset the world after millions of years of recovery. Seeing what humans have been doing to this world, Earth would probably take a life long hiatus. You’d just hope that natural causes would put you to slumber before anything out of the ordinary came. Who’s to say which would come first? The most logical would be getting too old, or murdered.

You wanted to live your normal adult life, not having to pay mind to these questions unless the off chance it came up in a random discussion. Usually, adults should be thinking about where to move out to, who they would choose to be a romantic partner and if kids were in the question. All you wanted was a dog and name them Spoogles or Spunch. The two of you could just live a quiet life. Dating is cool but dogs are better.

Life was leading up to that until six months ago. That’s when the supernatural started appearing around. At first, you simply thought these were due to lack of sleep (work can be pretty stressful), some people start losing it when our brains can’t shut our bodies down to recover. Over time, they progressively became less subtle in appearing. Figures would show up in the sky. Unnatural noises would suddenly ring about too. Most of the people didn’t pay attention at all, which had you thinking it was all in your head and not the ignorance of the human society. There was even a night where you woke up and found one of your moms sleepwalking. She appeared to be muttering random words too, none of which strung a proper sentence. Everything felt like a fever dream and there was a point where you scheduled a doctor’s appointment. It would appear the you only took in this problem, even the folks spoken to didn’t have a clue with what you were talking about. Some said it was probably the seasonal change and it was getting you sick. Maybe you rolled out of bed and went insane while hitting your head in the process.

All your questions were answered a little after the holidays. This was now considered Moving Day. You’d just had gotten home thirty minutes prior, your mothers were chatting among themselves but gave you a quick hello. You reply back and exit to your bedroom to change into comfortable clothes. Once the task was finished, a booming voice could be heard from outside. It was so loud that you felt the walls jiggle, as if they were being tickled.

**“HELLO, HUMANS! WE, THE IRKENS, HAVE DECIDED A PEACE TREATY! ALL HUMANS GET HAPPY HUMANS TOWN, THE REST OF EARTH BELONGS TO THE IRKENS.”**

Your nose scrunches up as you held your hands over your ears. What was going on? Naturally, you attempted to seek out your parents but you were stopped in your tracks by the sound of sizzling and half of the bedroom wall missing. It leaked the outside light into your room causing you to squint. A tube snakes it’s way through the hole and in a panic, you dive under your bed, covering your mouth to muffle any noise you might make. You shake out of fear as you see it look around, as if it was alive. From the other room, you can hear your parents yell out in distress. The tube dismisses your room once it discovers no one is inside. You roll out from under the bed and rush to peek through the lovely scenic hole.

Giant pinkish-red ships flew around the sky, people were yelling down below as they got sucked up into those tubes like an elephant collecting water. You could hear the crazy guy who shouted about the world ending shouting even more. He didn’t seem as crazy anymore but the lack of clothes could beg to differ for him. You watch his body get slammed with the tube, it lifts himself off of the crazy man before inhaling him. That was the biggest “fuck you” you’ve ever witnessed. 

You run to the living room, where you last saw your parents, both of them were gone and there was another hole decorated into your home. You yell out for them, even by their first names but got no reply. You were alone.

Moving Day had begun.

You did all that you could to hide from these Irkens. You were so frightened; tears would spill from your eyes due to how confused you were. Most of the town was completely evacuated by the aliens, you weren’t sure if you were the only one left or there was some hidden bunker somewhere. You couldn’t fathom that you yourself wasn’t going insane. This was all just them plotting how to successfully remove everyone to wherever “Happy Humans Town” might be.

The light off your phone was all that lit the empty house. You scrolled through videos and pictures of you and your parents. You missed them, they were all that you had. Finding them was the first thing on your to-do list.

Unnatural light leaks through the blinds of the windows. This caught your attention and you turn off your phone. Index and middle digits crack open the blinds, just enough for you to see what was happening. Smaller ships from before were looking around the town and that's also when you manage to get a better look at just what these invaders looked like. They were all, short, little green bug things. All of them wore the same aesthetic color of the human vacuum ships from earlier that day. You couldn’t tell if they were moving into the abandoned houses or looking for anyone who managed to slip their grasps. Time was running out.

You grab your backpack and begin filling it with things you needed; clothes, toiletries, quick food snacks, money and even your phone. You did your best to rush over to the kitchen counter and grab the keys to your parent’s car. You had no idea how to drive, there was too much anxiety embedded into that, though you force yourself to say you were a very good driver. At least your parents never really complained about this.

You rush to the red car and threw yourself and your bag into it. It purrs to life as you turn the ignition on. The car was very jerky as you put it into drive. Probably not the best thing to do is drive with both feet. The car takes you down the street, where other cars messily have themselves parked. You had to get out of the city before they noticed you making an escape. Turning around the corner, more lights dotted the ground and you look up to see more ships floating around. You gasp and slam the gas and speed off before they took notice. Unfortunately once you went full power, you couldn’t slow yourself down. You almost blacked out. Your brain didn’t even register that you were about to crash near a store before it was too late. That at least took your foot off the pedal.

The red car cries out as the air was clouded in orange. There was no saving the thing, it was completely busted and you doubt it would even turn on again after you removed the keys. It was like you unplugged it’s life support cord and the low hissing it was taking was it’s final breath. You have no time to think about this, you begin to grab your bag and speed inside the convenience store. The bells from the top happily greet you in while your body slams it closed. The lungs in your body heavy air in and out but they quickly die down once you force your body to quiet down. Who knows if these aliens have hyper hearing or whatever. Your eyes peek out the window, the so called Irkens fly past the store. When the lights on their weird aircrafts fade off into the distance, another heavy exhale escapes. Okay, new plan.

You weren’t at all a car expert (you don’t even know how to drive but you still rage war with yourself that you are a very good driver) but maybe there’s some manual inside that could give some emergency tips on how to fix some parts to get it moving again. For now, all you could think of was restocking with food before even handling the busted car. Tired feet sluggishly walk around the store, grabbing things that didn’t require multiple steps and means of cooking. After some time of walking, you sat down near the ATM machine and chewed on unpleasant Poop bars.  _ Tasted like wood shavings. _ Who in the right mind decided to name their product “Poop” and make the snacks equally as unappealing? People have too much freedom.

Half an hour later of choking on Poop and drinking a beverage, you foolishly let yourself fall asleep up against the ATM, your eyes were consumed by Sandman’s magic. Even he knew you needed some shuteye. You don't know how much time had past from falling asleep but you were quickly awakened from sudden noise from the door and a voice. From the sound of them, they weren’t human.

“Well, isn’t this just honky-dory!? No thanks to you, GIR, we’re stuck on foot!”

“Whaaa’s a hooooonky-dory?” Another voice replied back, it kind of sounded metallic, as if it was some artificial lifeform. Great, were the robots and Irkens making an alliance to rule the world?

“I don’t know, it’s something these humans call, ‘retro.’” This confirmed your suspicions on if these were aliens. You could hear both of their feet tread down the aisles and they continue to bounce back conversation. There might have been a third alien in here too, another voice was heard but it sounded like some cartoon animal. 

_ Go away, go away. _ You chant this to yourself in a pleading manner as you make yourself tiny as possible and hide in the aisle. There wasn’t much to hide you from them but if they came any closer, you’d just do your best to stealth mode to the next one.

_ “SILENCE!  _ I am trying to think of a plan.” The Irken spoke out. There was more shuffling around the store and items off the shelves crinkled, opened and what could be presumed, consumed. Your heart pounded and rang through your ears. The only way out of here was through the door. You considered just taking a leap of faith and making a break for it, but seconds from you actually stupidly doing it, you remembered the bells. They’d blow your escape, get caught and probably probed for whatever sick experiment it would have in mind for your body.

The two of them were getting closer to you; their footsteps were becoming louder. You crawl down the section you were at and with most discretion, poke your head out to see two small figures standing by the freezer with ice cream. The Irken was still rambling on about some plan of using a paperclip in some function. They sounded like the conversation was just the green thing was thinking aloud. The robot took no interest. 

Your eyes noticed the wooden broom by the freezer the two stood by. That’s when a plan hatched. The rambling alien was too busy in it’s own world to probably notice you sneaking up from behind and along with its little robot friend who was preoccupied with what flavor of ice cream to grab. Once you were inches away from the short aliens, a battle cry escapes you as both your hands lunge, pushing the robot in by the head and the Irken by the weird egg on it’s back. Both of them yelp in shock, in which they get tightly nestled into the freezer and locked in with a broom.

Your adrenalin turned into disgust and you rub your hands on your clothes. The alien wiggles it’s body to turn to face the glass and look at it’s captor. At first there was fear in their eyes but after realizing it was just a human, the squint in anger.

“ARG! Filthy hyuuuman! How dare you trap the ALMIGHTY ZIM in this freezer?” their voice was muffled as they yell at you. Thoughts flow in, wondering if, at least the Irken, runs out of air. Deep down, guilt pinged you for basically comiting murder but once the bigger picture came in, that feeling was overshadowed.

“This is what you get for stealing people and taking over our planet.” You begin, picking up your bag and shoving more food inside of it. You weren’t paying attention to what exactly was being stuffed inside. A low hiss and grunting could be heard from the alien and the so called robot named GIR cheering about being stuck. “Enjoy dying from either losing air or hypothermia.”

Those red eyes glare at you, “Stupid Earth worm, do you really think a stick and a freezer will stop me? Well, get ready to be amazed before Zim vaporizes you!” Slight panic washes over your body. Zim (you assume that’s their name) wiggles around a bit more and growling. There were a few clanks that jerked the shelf above them slightly, other than, nothing happened. After a few moments, they stop and you two stood there staring at each other in silence. Did the alien forget they were limited in space?

“GIR,” they frustratingly called out, “get me out of this horrible cold incubator.”

“Yes, my master!” GIR began squirming around, kicking Zim in the face while doing so (earning a displeased sound from the said alien). You weren’t really sure why you stood around to watch what brilliant bustout was to unfold, this was probably more entertaining than life threatening at this point. The blue eyed robot finally got to facing the glass door, it’s hands resting up against it. It was a robot, so maybe it was going to use laser eyes to break free. Your own attentive eyes show signs of widening and a twitch when seeing what GIR had done. There was no cool supercomputer action, in fact, all that happened was a metal tongue licking the glass. The robot hummed happily while doing such tactic. What was scarier, the fact that this robot was stupid or that this thing had a tongue? What even was that purpose for? It’s not like this thing was a komodo dragon and the saliva ate away flesh until it rots.   
…………You hope.

An eyebrow raises, these guys were a bunch of clowns. A little victory dance was in due and soon you began heading for the door while the Irken and robot argued. The green one must have noticed your departure and you could hear the slight panic tone of their voice. You attempt to ignore this but Zim offered something that made you stop in your tracks.

“How about a trade? You let Zim out of this freezing box and I’ll fix your car? I noticed you recklessly crashed it.”

“I don’t need your help! Also, I’m a very good driver, it’s supposed to leak like that.” You retort, hand now on the door, ready to push it open and leave. Zim yelled out a muffled “LIES!”

They deserved it, your parents were gone thanks to these green goblins. Your eyes stare at the red car, still smoking and leaking. It wasn’t as bad from before but it still showed no signs of being able to drive you more than a mile if it would even turn on. Doubts of having any chance of finding your moms again began to fill your mind. Maybe you could just take refuge in an abandoned church, maybe a hotel or even this store after that monster dies. The organ in your chest felt heavy, you couldn’t just give up like that. Tears threateningly get ready to spill. You’ve been through far worse. The risk that was going to be taken was dangerous. Zim could very well go against their word and make a break for it. In either case, you’d be stuck on foot no matter. Your hand leaves the door.

You now stood back in front of the freezer where your prisoners were held. The Irken’s smashed face looks at you, ditto for the robot who was still licking away. It was clear that the low temperatures was getting to them, Zim’s body was quivering. Left hand rests on the broom, but before letting them free, you had to speak your mind.

“We have a deal. But the moment you try anything suspicious, I’ll do more than just keep you locked in this freezer.” The wood was removed and you open the door. The two of them spring out and onto the floor like balls from a pinball machine. “I BROKE US OUT!” The hunk of metal cheers while hoping onto two feet.

Zim unglued himself from the floor, giving a hefty shiver before making some snarky comment you didn’t give the light of day. Soon after, they roam the store for anything useful. A sigh escapes you, thankful that no colorful mad dash was attempted. 

“Nyah!” That startled you, an echoey voice came from pretty much nowhere and you frantically whip your head to the source. That which was a tiny, floaty, purple moose. Then you remembered you heard a third voice earlier. The two of you stare rather blankly at each other, you couldn’t tell if they were actually looking at you; it’s eyes weren’t focused on a single point. Zim bounds around the corner.

“And where were  _ YOU  _ during that exchange?” Zim asks, you could see one of his antennae twitch.

“Nya!”

“What do you mean you’ve ‘been here the whole time?’ Why didn’t you help get Zim out of the freezer?”

“Nya!”

“Whatever, help me fix this bag of meat’s inferior traveling device.”

Dare you ask what just happened? Probably not. You needed to save your brain cells once you got back on the road.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope I did a good job with this! Please give me any suggestions that you might have, I crave feedback so much!  
Stay tuned for chapter 2!


End file.
